2 years after losing son to drunk-driving crash in Hawthorne, retired MMA fighter and wife campaign for tougher law

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Former MMA fighter Marcus Kowal shows his tattoo in honor of his late son, Liam, at his gym in Hawthorne on Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. In 2016, a drunk driver killed 15-month-old Liam as he was being pushed in a stroller by his aunt. Kowal is on a crusade to lower the legal B.A.C. (blood alcohol content) while driving from .08 to .05 in California. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Former MMA fighter Marcus Kowal and his wife, Mishel Eder, talk about their late son, Liam, at their gym in Hawthorne on Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. In 2016, a drunk driver killed 15-month-old Liam as he was being pushed in a stroller by his aunt. Kowal and Eder are on a crusade to lower the legal B.A.C. (blood alcohol content) while driving from .08 to .05 in California. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Former MMA fighter Marcus Kowal and his wife, Mishel Eder, talk about their late son, Liam, at their gym in Hawthorne on Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. In 2016, a drunk driver killed 15-month-old Liam as he was being pushed in a stroller by his aunt. Kowal and Eder are on a crusade to lower the legal B.A.C. (blood alcohol content) while driving from .08 to .05 in California. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

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Former MMA fighter Marcus Kowal gives his year-old son, Nico, a kiss as he and his wife, Mishel Eder ,talk about their late son, Liam, at their gym in Hawthorne on Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. In 2016, a drunk driver killed 15-month-old Liam as he was being pushed in a stroller by his aunt. Kowal and Eder are on a crusade to lower the legal B.A.C. (blood alcohol content) while driving from .08 to .05 in California. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Former MMA fighter Marcus Kowal talks about his his late son, Liam, at his gym in Hawthorne on Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. In 2016, a drunk driver killed 15-month-old Liam as he was being pushed in a stroller by his aunt. Kowal is on a crusade to lower the legal B.A.C. (blood alcohol content) while driving from .08 to .05 in California. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Former MMA fighter Marcus Kowal talks about their late son, Liam, as his wife, Mishel Eder, holds their year-old son, Nico, at their gym in Hawthorne on Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. In 2016, a drunk driver killed 15-month-old Liam as he was being pushed in a stroller by his aunt. Kowal and Eder are on a crusade to lower the legal B.A.C. (blood alcohol content) while driving from .08 to .05 in California. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Former MMA fighter Marcus Kowal shows his tattoo in honor of his late son, Liam, at his gym in Hawthorne on Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. In 2016, a drunk driver killed 15-month-old Liam as he was being pushed in a stroller by his aunt. Kowal is on a crusade to lower the legal B.A.C. (blood alcohol content) while driving from .08 to .05 in California. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

A banner honoring Liam Kowal’s life hangs in former MMA fighter Marcus Kowal’s gym in Hawthorne on Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. In 2016, a drunk driver killed 15-month-old Liam as he was being pushed in a stroller by his aunt. Kowal and his wife, Mishel Eder, on a crusade to lower the legal B.A.C. (blood alcohol content) while driving from .08 to .05 in California. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

Walking into Systems Training Center in Hawthorne, guests immediately see six championship belts and multiple trophies. A trophy in the center of that display was earned for Fight of the Night at a Sin City Fight Night in 2012.

But for gym owners Marcus Kowal, a former professional mixed martial arts fighter, and Mishel Eder, a banner is a reminder they are in the midst of a more significant fight. Two years ago Monday, Sept. 3, the couple’s first son, Liam, and Eder’s sister, Allison Bell, were hit by a drunk driver while crossing Hawthorne Boulevard at 133rd Street. Bell had been pushing her 15-month-old nephew along in a stroller.

“It changed our lives in a second,” Eder said. “One moment, I was studying and the next I saw my baby’s stroller in two pieces on the (street).” The next day, they took Liam off life support after they were told he was brain dead. Bell, 15, was injured but survived.

The driver of the vehicle, Donna Marie Higgins, 72 attempted to drive away but was stopped by witnesses. She ultimately accepted a plea deal to plead guilty to a vehicular manslaughter charge in August 2017. She was sentenced to six years in prison.

At the sentencing hearing, Kowal told reporters that Higgins’ blood-alcohol level was 0.12 percent with a breath test, and later 0.09 percent with a blood test.

Fueled by the pain of losing their son, Kowal and Eder have advocated for change to California’s regulations on drunk driving for nearly two years. They want to change what they call the casual culture of drinking and driving in order to prevent another family from experiencing the same tragedy.

For Kowal and Eder, that starts with lowering the legal limit of .08 percent blood-alcohol concentration to .05.

“We know we’re facing an uphill battle, but we’re not going to stop,” said Kowal, a Cal State Long Beach graduate. “It’s not a question of if we’ll win, it’s when.”

That decision to seek change came within days of Liam’s death.

The couple created a nonprofit, the Liam’s Life Foundation (liamslife.org), to raise awareness of the dangers of drunk driving and to lobby for policy change.

The couple released a book, “Life is a Moment,” earlier this year, stemming from a collection of 90,000 words Kowal wrote over three months to deal with his emotions. Twenty percent of proceeds from book sales go to the foundation, Kowal said.

A documentary, “Letters to Liam,” based on those writings and letters both parents have written to their son, will be released later this year, the couple said. Crews filmed the couple for more than a year, including scenes surrounding the birth of their second son, Nico, two weeks before Higgins’ sentencing.

There were plenty of moments when the couple wanted the cameras off, but in order for people to understand the aftermath of drunk driving, they had to be OK with the filming of those times, Kowal said.

“There’s a stigma of being macho and being a fighter and being tough,” Kowal said. “This is a very honest book. … Grief is something that every human will go through at some point in their life.”

After Liam was born in May 2015, Kowal figured he could be whatever he wanted to be when he grew up so long as he made the world a better place. His parents remember him as a happy baby who loved to eat. He would share his favorite toys and fruit, even with strangers.

For his giving nature, his parents knew that donating his organs was the right decision.

“This was not at all the plan we had for him, but he’s already given more than a lot of people in this world,” Kowal said.

Along the campaign, they’ve spoken to more than 5,000 high school students on the dangers of drunk driving. They’ve collaborated with the California Highway Patrol. They were involved in a Super Bowl commercial on the effects of drunk driving that aired in Missouri, they said.

In Kowal’s home country of Sweden, the legal limit for drinking and driving is .02 with, he said, getting behind the wheel after drinking frowned upon more severely than in the United States.

Lowering the legal limit in California could improve the mindset here, he said. It could also lead people to think about Uber or Lyft instead of driving home.

But while calls to politicians are answered, those politicians have not followed up. Lobbyists and organizations such as the American Beverage Institute have opposed lowering the legal limit, saying the move would be an attack on the restaurant and hospitality industries and criminalizes social drinking.

“Our fight isn’t with the alcohol companies,” Kowal said. “Our fight is just don’t get behind the wheel when you’ve been drinking.”

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 10,497 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2016, which accounted for 28 percent of all traffic-related deaths in the United States. Of those who died in alcohol-related crashes, 214 were children under age 15.

“Once you’re faced with the statistics and effects of drunk driving, how are you going to go against it?” Kowal said. “It’s something that could very easily be changed.”

Despite little political traction, Kowal and Eder, who also own gyms in Inglewood, Encino and Westwood, say they won’t stop fighting.

Kowal may have hung the gloves up months ago, finishing his mixed martial arts career in Sweden, but he and his wife have not stopped fighting.

“This is a fight we’re going to win, we’re not going to stop and we know we’re fighting for the right thing,” he said. “When someone fights for profit and I fight for my son’s life – and I’ve been fighting my whole life – there’s no way I’m not going to win this fight.”

Nathan covers crime and public safety for the Daily Breeze. Prior to joining the coverage team in the South Bay, Nathan worked for the Orange County Register, where he covered south Orange County cities and community sports. A freelance play-by-play broadcaster, Nathan can be heard calling high school baseball and community college football games during the spring on his days off.